Chapter 54: Batman’s Disappearing Act

As Regriel and General Artica began to walk away, the Spydragon coiled around a branch, gazing at their retreating figures, stealthily following them. Once they had traversed by more than one hundred metres, forking away through the thicket of trees, the beggar exited from behind the tree with the large trunk.

Patting his chest to calm his thumping heart, Compass Carburettor clenched his hand into a fist, raising it high up into the air, ‘Success! Regriel’s System was unable to sense anything suspicious about me.’

He was assured of the fact thanks to the way Regriel had thought about him. After all, the moment Regriel thought about him, a Mental Energy stream landed on him, allowing him to determine the emotions Regriel felt at the time.

And through a detailed observation of the variations of states of the Mental Energy streams directed at him by Regriel, Compass Carburettor was finally assured that by blocking his Mental Energy Form using the nerves was a great measure against the System’s probing senses.

And, that wasn’t all, Compass Carburettor went a step further to only talk to General Artica. This way, even when a Mental Energy stream didn’t land on Regriel from him, the System wouldn’t feel anything was amiss. After all, from the start, he was only focused on General Artica, not even glancing at Regriel once.

So, it wasn’t suspicious.

“One of my wishes was finally realised today,” Compass Carburettor sighed, grinning widely as he gazed at the sky, “I wanted to pull a batman’s vanishing act on people at least once. And I can say this was a resounding success.”

It wasn’t anything too impressive, just a sleight of the hand typically used by all the magicians on Earth to distract the focus of the audience in one direction while they prepared the next trick from the other.

The first part of his batman’s vanishing act was the liquor bottle placed in the centre of the path. Compass Carburettor had accurately placed himself before the tree, having grasped the comfort distance of General Artica around him.

By calculating that during the first time he hugged her legs, he backed away, planting the liquor bottle with the piece of paper in the centre of the path, positioned horizontally to his right. Moreover, he had also placed a small rock on the right end of the path, positioning it slightly beyond arm’s reach from the bottle’s position.

This way, when Regriel noticed it, he was distracted by the paper inside the liquor bottle. And, his thought process immediately went towards the intention to see what was written in it. Moreover, he also wished to divert General Artica’s focus from his lacking left hand.

So, it worked perfectly for him as Regriel picked up the bottle with his right hand and looked at the rock on his right. He smashed the bottle on the rock and looked into the paper. General Artica only focused on him once he returned. So, they had turned their backs towards Compass Carburettor.

As for his schemes, he behaved like a wisecrack that had gone senile, spouting wise words filled with random bullshit, purely keeping General Artica’s attention on his words. That’s how she failed to notice the bottle planted in the centre of the path. Otherwise, considering how attentive she was usually, she would have noticed it first thing.

Compass Carburettor constantly led her on through his words, confusing her at times while also causing her to ponder during the rest, fully grasping her attention to himself. Finally, the scene played out once Regriel arrived.

And, once their backs faced his way, Compass Carburettor carefully took a step around the tree, ensuring to place his foot on the protruding tree root to do so, heading towards the side of the tree that blocked their line of sight.

That was why he had chosen such a large-trunked tree in the first place. He carefully stood in place, pulling a root that also acted as a lever, causing the tree roots to slightly slide away as he slipped through the gap like a snake, closing the roots back to their original position.

As it was snowing, even the faintest disturbance in the snow was blanked by the falling snow within a couple of seconds. Moreover, as Regriel and General Artica hadn’t seen the back of the large-trunked tree, they were unable to notice the slight differences in the area.

The hole was something he had already prepared in advance. That’s why he awaited in such a place. He also had three Spydragons in total. The first was the one that tailed after General Artica from the city.

The second was planted in the mansion, gazing at the altar from a clear angle to see whether Regriel’s hands were severed or not. As for the third Spydragon, it was placed far away on the edge of the forest, overlooking the path that one had to take to head towards the capital of the Heroica Empire, Grenstan.

Now that Regriel and General Artica had gone far enough, Compass Carburettor exited the hole, returning the tree roots to their original position, unwilling to leave behind any traces. He then sprinted towards the mansion, ensuring to only step upon the footsteps made by Regriel.

It was wise to be cautious. So, he dared not slip up in the slightest. Nor was he willing to take things lightly for even a moment. Compass Carburettor raced towards the mansion, leaping once he approached it, landing atop the walls like a cat before jumping into the estate ground.

Upon noticing that no new Mental Energy stream fell on him from the estate ground, he was assured that no other snake or the variety was at the place. He quickly arrived before the altar, flipping the mechanism within as he pulled out a sealed box.

And, within it were the two hands of Regriel. Upon seeing them, Compass Carburettor contained his revulsion, observing it as he could see a transparent substance trying to exit it and scatter, “This is the fragment of Regriel’s System contained in his hands. I wonder how I should refine it?”

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